No Medals for Trying: A Week in the Life of a Pro Football Team

A veteran sports columnist follows the New York Giants behind the scenes for one eventful week in December 1989, highlighting the team's key personnel and chronicling their preparations for a crucial game against the Eagles

Syndicated sports columnist Izenberg ( The Rivals ), who has covered the New York Giants for three decades, here reports on one week in the life of the team, November 27-December 3, 1989, when the players were recuperating from a loss to the San Francisco 49ers and preparing for a game with the Philadelphia Eagles, whom they had to beat in order to win their division. With both quarterback Phil Simms and linebacker Lawrence Taylor badly injured, everyone, from head coach Bill Parcells to the most untried rookie, felt the necessity of making an extra effort. Izenberg builds the suspense so masterfully that grid aficionados will be caught up in the story. The book's title, however, is ill-chosen, as it reveals the outcome of the game.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Izenberg, who has covered the New York Giants for some 30 years, reports on a week that he spent with the team. The week in question began on November 27, 1989, after the Giants lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the game where both Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor were injured, and culminates on December 4, after a sloppy loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Because of Taylor's injury, much of the book reads like a paean to the linebacker. Izenberg gives no real insights into the workings of a professional football team, and there's nothing here about the Giants that readers couldn't get from the New York Post. Izenberg does a fine job of introducing the players, coaches, trainers, and office personnel, but then he gets bogged down in team history and personal anecdotes and never really gets behind the scenes--unless all pros sit around between Sundays eating pizza and donuts, watching videos, etc. Most sports collections can skip.
- John Turner, New York
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.